For elementary school children everywhere, the end of the library’s summer reading program signals the beginning of the end of vacation. Even though it’s the start of August, with temperatures climbing above 100 and 95 percent humidity, children across the country are hearing the death knells of summer.

The end of the summer reading program also means something else to concerned parents and teachers: a month in which many students have no steady exposure to literature. Soon they will be plunged back into the classroom and expected to have retained and be able to use information and skills learned in the previous school year.

This is the time where parental involvement is crucial in childhood education.

Parents, it falls to you to encourage your children to keep reading, to ensure they don’t regress or lose skills teachers have painstakingly instilled.

With more than a month before school starts, kids need a bit of a push to continue to develop their literacy skills.

Independent exploration is a crucial aspect of academic development, and parents must work in tandem with teachers to ensure children are actually learning and internalizing skills, rather than just memorizing facts to be regurgitated during testing periods.

So stock up on books, brush up on your sight words and re-familiarize yourself with fifth-grade math. Your kids — and their teachers — need your help in the preparing for the new school year.

The kids might complain now, but they will thank you for it later.